


Take Notice (With An "E" At The End)

by carrotsblythe



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, also gilly is a precious little boy, i did miss stacy dirty in this so i apologise, i feel so bad for ruby, i loved this part in the books sm, updated, we all know anne would be pissed if this happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 20:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15915615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrotsblythe/pseuds/carrotsblythe
Summary: Everything was spoiled, however, when Anne entered the school building and saw a disgusting statement written on the blackboard.Ann + GilbertWhoever wrote this would pay...





	Take Notice (With An "E" At The End)

The Avonlea school children as of late had taken to writing "Take Notice"s on the wall round the back of the school. Two names would be written there underneath a big sign saying "TAKE NOTICE", therefore "pairing" the two unlucky people together until the rain washed the chalk away, and different names were written in it's place. Seeing as it had been a particularly showery spring, there had been many opportunities to "pair" new students, much to the delight of anyone who loved to devour gossip half as much as Mrs Lynde. Anyone who was unfortunate enough to be "paired", had to endure public humiliation in the form of Josie Pye and Billy Andrews' malicious teasing. 

 

Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was vehemently against these "Notices". Not that she was ever vocal about it, for Josie would never let it slide if she was, but she stood up for those being ridiculed and made it clear to them privately just what she thought of whoever wrote these awful signs. 

 

Anne arrived at school one morning in a perfectly pleasant humour. " _How can you not feel wonderful on a glorious day like today?"_ Anne had remarked to Diana whilst they walked. The birds sang as merrily as ever, and she had planned to take a bouquet of daffodils home to Green Gables that afternoon to decorate her little gable room. 

 

Everything was spoiled, however, when Anne entered the school building and saw a disgusting statement written on the blackboard. 

 

_Ann + Gilbert_

 

Whoever wrote this would  _pay_ , was Anne's first and most immediate thought. Who could be so evil as to transfer these  _lies_ from the wall outside to the blackboard! In front of everyone! She could feel her face getting hotter and redder by the second, until it matched the shade of her hair. 

 

"Anne, are you alright?" Diana asked worriedly, placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. 

 

"I'm fine," Anne wobbled, walking to her desk whilst keeping her eyes fixed on the floor. She could feel everyone looking at her. Their eyes stabbed into her back like daggers as she walked down the aisle. Josie Pye could be heard snickering behind her, no doubt planning a whole new arrangement of insults regarding the day's events, to be whipped out at her leisure over the months to come.

 

"Ruby is going to  _hate_ me!" Anne groaned as Diana sat down beside her. 

 

"No she won't," Diana reassured her. "Ruby knows that you hate the Notices, and that you would never write such a thing about yourself and Gilbert,"

 

Anne did not dare to look over to where Gilbert was seated. He arrived at school before everyone else almost every morning. He must have been one of the first to see it. Imagine not even having the decency to clear it off before anybody else saw it! Well, Anne sighed, Gilbert loved to torment her, so she really should have seen it coming. 

 

Miss Stacy heard the chattering, and came through from the back room to begin the day's lesson.

 

"Good morning class! Just give me a moment to count heads and we will begin the lesson shortly. Do quieten down now, children, you are awfully hyper this morning," she said cheerfully, blissfully unaware of what was causing all of the commotion. 

 

Miss Stacy seldom used the blackboard, preferring a more hands-on approach to teaching. She barely gave it a second glance, much to the joy of her pupils, as they also enjoyed the practical work in the classroom. Anne wished at that very moment that the blackboard was in constant use, so that Miss Stacy would see the vile "Notice" and wipe it from the board to end her suffering. 

 

Miss Stacy had the class register in hand, pairing names with faces, and counting the number of pupils that had showed up. 

 

"Does anyone know where Ruby Gillis is?" asked Miss Stacy, when she could not see her face in the crowd of students. 

 

"I saw her, Miss," Moody said. "I walked past her on my way here. She was crying, and she said she was going home because she felt "awful sick" all of a sudden,"

 

"Oh  _no_!" whimpered Anne, and even Diana had to admit that this was not ideal. 

 

"It's alright, Anne," she said, albeit unconvincingly. "I will go past her house on the way home from school and explain everything. I'm sure she would rather hear it from me than from anyone else,"

 

A rush of cold air blew through the classroom as the door swung open and slammed shut again. 

 

"I'm sorry I'm late, Miss Stacy," Gilbert said, hanging up his coat. 

 

Anne promptly banged her head against the desk. So he had not seen it after all! That made more sense, she supposed, because no one would leave their name up there with  _her_ if they could help it! 

 

"That's perfectly alright, Gilbert, you can stay inside at lunch for the lessons you missed this morning,"

 

"Thank you, Miss," Gilbert said, taking a seat at his desk and taking out out his books. He had not yet noticed the board, that much was clear in his voice. Anne could not and did not want to see his face, as she still had her head on her desk, with no intention of looking up or showing her face for a long time. The whole class stared at Gilbert expectantly, waiting for the moment of realisation. 

 

"Charlie, why is everyone stari-  _ohhh_..."

 

Anne never thought she could hear so much disgust in a person's voice. (There was no disgust, however, she was merely imagining it.) Anything between Anne and Gilbert resembling friendship was utterly destroyed in that moment, as Anne thought she would never be able to look him in the eye again. 

 

Every pair of eyes were on Anne, including Gilbert's. She looked absolutely mortified. Even Miss Stacy had noticed by now that something was wrong. 

 

"Are you quite alright, Anne?" she asked. 

 

"Mm-hm," she nodded sadly, lifting her head off the desk, to reveal a face more violently red than her hair. 

 

Miss Stacy thought this an acceptable answer, and did not take the laughter that followed as anything but excitement to begin the day. 

 

"Alright, class. This morning we are going to be doing literacy," she began. "We will go around the class and each say a word we find difficult to spell, and we will create acronyms to help you remember the correct spelling. Moody Spurgeon, you're up first,"

 

 _Whoever wrote my name up there must be horrific at spelling, or perhaps they did it just to be cruel,_ Anne thought bitterly, glancing at the  _Ann_ without an "e" that was behind Miss Stacy on the blackboard. She had been sure that everyone knew by now that her preferred spelling of Anne contained an "e" at the end. 

 

She listened to not another thing that anyone said, preferring to wallow in self-pity. Ruby would  _never_ forgive her. She would be banished from eating with the girls at lunch, and Diana would be forbidden to talk to her. Her time at school was to be forever lonesome and- 

 

The mention of her name snapped her out of her despair. 

 

"If anyone wrote a notice of me and that ugly orphan, I'd never be able to show my face again!" Billy Andrews chuckled. "In fact, I'd be downright offended, that's what. Let's see what happens if someone  _dares_ to pair me with her,"

 

Anne felt fury wash over her, and she whipped her head around in order to give Billy a well-worded insult, but was stopped in her tracks when she locked eyes with Gilbert. 

 

He had glanced over to check her reaction, and ended up staring right at her. Gilbert had expected her to be angry, perhaps smash the slate she was holding right over Billy's head (what he would not give to see that!). Yet, she looked sad. There was not a hint of anger in her face. She did not even look a offended, just sorrowful, like she was ashamed to be such a dreadful thing to be "paired" with. 

 

She  _must_ know that he did not think that about her...

 

"Anne Shirley-Cuthbert," Miss Stacy read out, smiling. 

 

Anne was so surprised to hear her name being called that she knocked a piece of chalk onto the floor. The whole class, minus Diana, Jane, Tillie and Gilbert who were all feeling rather miserable over the whole occasion, burst into laughter as Anne bent to pick it up. 

 

As Anne looked around her, she saw that everyone around her thought she was a fool, and those who did not, pitied her. She would  _never_ live this down. Anne glanced from the chalk in her hand to the blackboard. 

 

She had nothing left to lose. 

 

She straightened herself out, and held her head high, making herself look as proud as humanly possible when your heart is beating out of your chest and thumping in your ears. 

 

"Well," Anne began, walking shakily to the front of the class. 

 

"Anne, what you you doing!" Diana cried in a whisper. 

 

"This particular word is not a word I find difficult to spell at all, but as others seem to be struggling, I think I need to address it," Anne stood in front of the blackboard, and Miss Stacy gasped in horror as she saw what was written. 

 

"You see," Anne continued, "You have to remember to spell Anne with an "e" at the end," She wrote a neat little  _e_ next to the  _Ann_ and stalked back to her desk and took her seat. 

 

The class broke into an uproar: Charlie Sloane was  _crying_ with laughter (not directed at Anne but in support of her), Billy was spurting a wide-array of orphan-based abuse but was drowned out by a rapturous round of applause, all whilst Miss Stacy was desperately trying to regain control of the classroom. 

 

"Who wrote this?" Miss Stacy demanded.

 

"We don't know, Miss, it was there when we came in," explained Diana. 

 

"Has there been any more of these- these  _things_?" 

 

"Only on the wall outside, never in here," Diana assured her. 

 

"Oh my goodness! I have allowed them to go over my head. I can guarantee that anyone else caught writing these awful things will be punished most severely," Miss Stacy turned to Anne and Gilbert. "I am  _so_ sorry," she apologised, and began a rather poetical speech on the perils of gossip, which Anne would have thought quite inspirational had she not been lost in a daydream.

 

Anne glanced over at Gilbert, who was wearing the biggest grin that mankind had ever seen. He noticed her looking, and mouthed " _that was amazing!"_ whilst giving her a thumbs up. 

 

Perhaps it was not so bad being "paired" with Gilbert Blythe after all, Anne thought, He was not one to insult people, like Billy Andrews. He was not cold-blooded and evil, like Josie Pye. In fact, out of everyone whom she had ever known, he was the most like the prince of her dreams. 

 

Almost, but not quite. 

 

If Gilbert had been "paired" with Ruby Gillis instead, maybe he would have declared his undying love for her, and it all would have ended with marriage and children. But there was one thing that Anne knew for certain. 

 

That was  _not_ going to happen with her. 


End file.
